Four doubts your interviewer has about you – and how to address them

I’ve worked with my colleague Jessica (names have been changed to protect the embarrassed) for nearly 10 years. Jessica is an expert recruiter who had hired a new member of her team a few weeks earlier and I casually asked how the new guy was getting on. “I think I got it wrong” she admitted sheepishly “he’s not right for that job”.

For any hiring manager, the possibility of spending months tirelessly trying to find the perfect new member of their team, only to find weeks later that they have recruited the wrong person, can be an extremely worrying, and often all too real prospect.

Understandably decision-makers will do everything in their power to ensure that this doesn’t happen. This includes thoroughly evaluating each candidate they interview – weighing up their pros and cons, and quickly identifying any doubts they have or risks they might foresee.

As a jobseeker, it’s vitally important that you understand this, and have prepared thoroughly to overcome any doubts the interviewer might have of you, long before you even set foot in the interview room. To help you, I’ve highlighted below some common reservations interviewers can have of interviewees, and how, you, as a jobseeker can proactively tackle these to make sure they are comfortable committing to hire you:

1. You lack the right skills and experience:

The interviewer will be looking for the best match of skills and experience when interviewing candidates, and rightly so. Here’s what to do if you are lacking any:

Identify any mismatches: As part of your interview preparation, you may have highlighted areas on the job advert which match your skills and therefore are planning to emphasise these in the interview. However, it is also important to look at the areas in which your skills may not fully correlate and take note of these.

Can you tackle this before the interview? If you are lacking a key skill required for the role, consider whether this is something you can begin to learn in advance. Not all skills can be learnt to perfection in a short timescale, but showing commitment to learning and improving is a great start.

How to respond if the interviewer voices their concerns: If the interviewer explains their reservations about this outright, you should respond by emphasising that you are a quick learner and are always looking to expand your skill set. Perhaps highlight a time when you quickly learnt a new skill or proactively undertook a training course in your own time.